Authors: Ricardo A G Viani Ricardo R Rodrigues Todd E Dawson Rafael S Oliveira
Publish Date: 2011/07/14
Volume: 349, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 341-353
Abstract
Cerradão Brazilian woodland savannas and seasonally dry forests SDF from southeastern Brazil occur under the same climate but are remarkably distinct in species composition The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of soil origin in the initial growth and distribution of SDF and Cerradão speciesDespite the higher nutrient availability in SDF soils soil origin did not affect seedling survivorship The three SDF species demonstrated homesoil advantage enhanced growth with increasing soil nutrient availability and had higher growth rates than Cerradão species even on Cerradão soils Growth of Cerradão seedlings was not higher on Cerradão soil and overall was not positively correlated with soil nutrient availabilitySDF species are fastgrowing species while Cerradão trees tend to be slowgrowing species Although savanna soil reduces growth of forest species our findings suggest that soil chemical attributes alone does not exclude the occurrence of SDF seedlings in Cerradão and viceversa
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